Facebook for robots helps droids get smarter

(Robo-friends: Nao robots like these have their own version of Facebook from today. Image: Yoshikazu Tsuno/ AFP/Getty Images)

Being a robot just got a little bit more sociable, now that droids have their own social network. At MyRobots.com, which launched today, robot owners can sign-up their automatons, create profiles for them - even include a photo and a name - and then leave them to update their own status. This might be a simple temperature reading - or the results of a clever face-recognition algorithm.

"You can see MyRobots.com as the Facebook for robots and smart objects," says project co-ordinator Carlos Asmat of Montreal, Canada. Like Facebook, signing up is free, although that may change in the future.

But while Facebook is often criticised for emphasising the duller aspects of human life ("Bored. When can I go to the pub?" or "I need pizza") , the exchange of seemingly mundane status updates between robots ("I am overheating and need a rest" or "I am a vacuum cleaner and I am stuck") could make them a lot smarter.

At the very least, such updates - which could come from stationary
household objects as well as moving robots - could allow humans to come
to the rescue. More interestingly, by allowing robots to pool
information, they could lead to much more intelligent decision-making.
"Not all robots have the same sensors or the same access to
information," says Asmat.

For example, a stove and a fridge signed up to the site might detect
usage, while a humanoid patroller robot might notice lots of people in
the house. The next day, a robot vacuum could
then deduce from those updates that there was a party, and that it
should clean more because the house might be dirtier - all without the
intervention of a human. "These examples can be seen as science fiction
at the moment but are very close to become a reality," says Asmat

Right now the site is open only geared up to serve the Nao (pictured above), a 50cm tall, white plastic humanoid made by Aldebaran Robotics in Paris France, as well as devices that run on the Arduino microcontroller popular with electronics hobbyists. But the plan is for more robots and devices to be accepted in future.

It's not the first effort to harness the web to enhance robot communication. RoboEarth has been touted as the world wide web for robots. Robots upload their experiences at solving a particular task,
allowing other robots to learn from that data. It is mainly designed
for research roboticists, whereas MyRobots.com is about consumers. "Our
main focus is to provide services that augment robot performance for
end-users in a friendly way," says Asmat.

MyRobots.com is also planning to host a robot app store, though Asmat says that unlike apps for cell phones, at MyRobots.com the emphasis will be on cloud-based software so that the robots' resources are kept as free as possible.

Will the Facebook of robots catch on? There may not yet be enough robot
owners to sustain the effort. But if MyRobots really does make robots
smarter as promised, and therefore more useful, then MyRobots should
help to overcome its own biggest stumbling block.

A fantastic idea, except for one minor possible problem. Are they assuming everything is nice and tidy and clean? Or are they taking the stand that due to accidental, deliberate or malicious efforts any given robot can have any given data corrupted in detection, generation, transmission, reception, decoding and implementation?

Simply put, the world lies, how are these robots being designed to handle the lies they cannot detect, to detect the lies they can handle, without which they can in no way be called fit for general real world use?

Hi Tek
on January 3, 2012 2:23 AM

SkyNet!!!!

AnnoyedAtHumans
on January 3, 2012 7:09 AM

Noooo
Dammit, humans, have you learned nothing?
You know how in EVERY DAMNED ROBOT UPRISING MOVIE
there is one super brain?
One that can, or does, control everything?
Re-read the post. Done.